Environmental issues in Delhi
Environmental problems in Delhi, India, are a threat to the well-being of the city's and area's inhabitants as well as the flora and fauna.
[7][8][9][10][11] Overcrowding and the ensuing overuse of scarce resources such as water put heavy pressure on the environment.
[15] Water pollution and a lack of solid waste treatment facilities have caused serious damage to the river on whose banks Delhi grew, the Yamuna.
[25] City authorities claim to have had some success in bringing down air pollution; for instance, during the bidding process for the 2014 Asian Games, the city's organizing committee had claimed that "pollution levels had come down drastically in Delhi with the arrival of Metro rail as well as all public transport vehicle being run compulsorily on CNG(Compressed Natural Gas).
"[16] For traffic related sources, growth in vehicle numbers and mileage seems to outpace efforts to reduce emissions.
The particulate emissions in other seasons are more or less same but comfortable convective upward atmospheric air circulation is able to disperse the pollutants.
Underground hydrological resources are a substantial supplemental source of water in Delhi, especially in the affluent sections of the city.
City authorities claimed in 2008 that the green cover had increased from 26 km2 to 300 km2; moreover, the Delhi Forest Act stipulated that for every felled tree ten saplings need to be planted.
[37] In 2012, the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) was declared the State Bird of Delhi in order to aid its conservation.
[39] There is a policy for afforestation, atmospheric pollution, bio-medical waste, domestic refuse, and water and sewage treatment.
[40] Given the continued growth of the city and its population, problems are tackled only with difficulty—for instance, the Yamuna clean-up projects spent $500 million between 1993 and 2005, yet the river's pollution actually doubled during this same period.
Delhi Metro also improved its clean energy initiative for last mile connectivity with the introduction of 800 e-auto rickshaws.
5% of Delhis air pollution is due to cremations with wood in the open-air burning places.
Solar crematories aim to reduce this type of air pollution and reduce consumption of wood; using the same 60 square-meter large parabolic Fixed Focus reflectors, being used at 'India One', the first solar thermal 1 MW power device; SC's Ban on sale of fireworks: Since air pollution spikes in Delhi during festivities for Vijayadashami and Diwali, on 9 October 2017 the Supreme Court of India banned the sale of fireworks—a main source of the spike—in the city.
[45] Paddy-straw-management '(R)-device' : With European technology, introduced before the rice harvesting season, October (2020), the Paddy-straw-management '(R)-device' will drastically reduce this type of air pollution and bring benefit to the farmers in Punjab and Haryana: 'waste-to-wealth' Alternative water-conserving crops: In 2022, the Punjab Government announced they will purchase maize, sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower and mung bean crops at MSP, encouraging farmers to adopt less water consuming options as a sustainable alternative to paddy and wheat in the wake of fast-depleting groundwater.
Over 27 MW of this energy is extracted from Rewa power plant in Madhya Pradesh with average of 345 million units (MU).
The system is also focusing on rooftop solar energy where the lighting, escalators and other electrical supply is all obtained from roof mounted panels.
